Bruce Walker has been the most important exponent of the application of technology to address the challenges of life and work in central Australia since John Flynn founded the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Through the Centre for Appropriate Technology in Alice Springs, which he founded in 1980, he has been responsible for many technologies leading to very significant improvements in the key infrastructure for remote communities ? housing, water, energy, communication and education. Through the delivery of technologies appropriately designed for remote locations and the fostering of community-based technical services, he has materially changed the lives and livelihoods of many indigenous Australians and provided a substantial boost to local and regional economies. Based on these appropriate technologies, he has pioneered the development of a desert knowledge-based economy, now embodied in the Desert People?s Centre, the Desert Knowledge Australia Precinct, and the Desert Knowledge CRC.